Survival
by Gumnut
Summary: If I am destroyed, then so shall you be…"


Survival  
An episode tag to 'Kitt vs. Karr'  
A response to the ficathon challenge on KRO  
By Gumnut  
9 Jan 2005

"If I am destroyed, then so shall you be…"

The voice jarred his processor and threw him out of recharge. For a moment, Kitt was disorientated, unsure of exactly where he was, the datastream that made up his memory bouncing from once side of his CPU to the other.

What the-?

But then reality set in. His scanners picked up the familiar outline of his garage, the workbench, the doors…

His home.

He was home, safe and sound.

Then why-?

He turned to his processors, seeking the source of the disturbance that had interrupted his recharge cycle. He located it quickly. A subsystem had been processing the day's activities, cataloguing items of importance and flagging them in his memory module for future access. It was a system that ran all the time, sorting his memories into an accessible system. A simple subroutine normally conducted by what could be an equivalent to a human's subconscious.

But today hadn't been a normal day.

Kitt idly tracked his scanner around the Foundation grounds, not expecting anything to be out of the usual, but needing the moment to straighten out his thoughts.

He had killed today.

Well, not in the definite human sense. But in the eyes of an AI the destruction of another AI was pretty much the equivalent. The fact that there were no other AIs of particular note in known existence simply made the crime worse.

But they hadn't had a choice.

Had they?

KARR had been renegade, hell bent on destruction and torment. He had no care for any fellow being much less that of any other AI. He had threatened, hurt and terrified several people. He had to be stopped.

And the only way to do that was to destroy him.

Wasn't it?

The argument bounced around in circles, his processors spinning data to the point of making him dizzy.

There was no other way was there?

There couldn't be.

Otherwise Kitt had killed the only other lifeform on this planet that was remotely like himself.

And that hurt.

Michael had been quiet on the drive back to the Foundation, his driver obviously lost in his own thoughts on the mission. Kitt wondered if Michael had had any second thoughts about the confrontation.

He doubted it. He had been so focussed from the moment this mission had been thrown into their lap. Kitt hadn't known what to think when he saw KARR tearing down that country road in front of him. It couldn't be him, it just couldn't.

But it was.

How the hell had that happened?

Kitt stuttered at his own phrasing. He had been around Michael far too long, he was even beginning to think like him.

A quick query to the comlink sent back a nicely reassuring update on Michael's condition. His driver had managed to survive this outing with little more than a mild bruising. Wonders never ceased where Michael was concerned.

Kitt had been so upset at the thought of Michael facing down KARR without the protection of the Trans Am, but his words had no hold on his driver, as usual. Impetuous was simply too mild a descriptive word.

But he had to agree, they were out of options.

And luck had played his way.

Early on in his life Kitt would have considered any concept as illogically based as 'luck' to be a human fantasy, non-existent and irrelevant. What was it about experience that changed a mind? Michael had taught him so much and luck was no longer a phenomenon he would willingly dismiss. That laser had malfunctioned at just the right moment to save his partner, KARR's inability to power it up as simple as a fluke, proven by his lack of hesitation the next time he tried to slice the two of them apart. Kitt was more than willing to agree with Michael's assumption that the world was not all as it seemed.

Michael moved in his sleep, probably dreaming, his vital signs reflecting his body's movement. Michael was asleep in his room and not for the first time Kitt wished he was with him. The AI relished the times he held Michael while he was sleeping. There was no other way that illustrated Michael's trust in him than when his driver slept in the cabin. It also enabled Kitt to keep an eye on the most important factor in his life.

KARR had somehow recognised that factor. He had called out to Kitt across that dry creek bed, taunting Michael, knowing that Kitt's programming was focussed on the man in his cabin first and foremost. KARR knew that the key to Kitt's destruction lay in his driver.

Michael was his weakness.

But also his strength.

And KARR had learnt that the hard way.

It was together that they worked at their best, a partnership that created such synergy. KARR had never had that. He had been thrown into a world that didn't want him. He did what he was programmed to do and it lead to his destruction.

It was the only outcome.

Wasn't it?

His CPU missed a beat, the argument bouncing around faster, and Kitt frowned.

He really needed to talk to Michael.

He accessed the comlink again, but hesitated. The steady rhythm of Michael's heartbeat caught his attention as it always did, calming him, steadying his own erratic fluctuations.

"If I am destroyed, then so shall you be…"

The voice was still there.

And it always would be.

Kitt shut down the thought for a moment, choosing to simply exist. Calm. Serenity.

The truth of the matter.

He had killed his brother.

He cringed, the mere concept hurt. But it was the truth.

Data bounced from one side of his CPU to the other, a hiccup in the stream forming where the thought interrupted it.

He had killed.

But there hadn't been a choice.

Had there?

Kitt sideswiped the entire argument, shoving it out of his processor, forcing it into temporary data storage before the loop could take any more resources in its unsolvable riddle.

Michael would have the answer.

He always did.

For the next few moments, Kitt distracted his processor with some simple diagnostic routines. Bonnie had given him a thorough mechanical check as soon as they had returned. The Foundation mechanics also hovering around the garage as the remains of the Semi were backed in to join him. The trailer was still sitting beside him, and it felt a little weird to be on the outside, when usually he would be snug on the inside.

An image forced its way into his processor again - the fear on Devon and Bonnie's faces as KARR attacked them in the semi.

No, there hadn't been any other way.

Are you sure?

He was sure.

Wasn't he?

His processor caught the loop again and ran with it.

Kitt sighed.

Maybe he should wake Michael. He was only wasting energy on this line of query.

Wasn't he?

Oh, for crying out loud, Kitt, can't you make a single simple decision?

Angered, he once again slammed the query into temporary memory. He needed to recharge. This was getting ridiculous.

Ridiculous?

Are you sure about that?

Kitt frowned. What?

Full of questions aren't we.

Several circuits froze in alarm. What? Kitt flung a query at his self diagnostic system.

And it threw an error back at him.

Again.

Same response.

Hmm, they don't make them like they used to do they.

Kitt looked around himself in fear. All scanners came online and combed his surroundings.

There was no one there.

He checked his internal processors, searching through his systems manually. His self diagnostic systems refused to speak with him, now not even throwing errors at him. What the hell?

And then a process was interrupted.

And another.

Not by him.

Kitt turned around in his virtual world and came face to face with….

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

The voice was dark and horribly familiar.

One by one Kitt's scanners shut down, their control stolen from him by the very program he had sort to destroy. He fumbled for the comlink desperate to warn the most important factor in his life.

The program corrupting his system simply batted him away. "Definitely an inferior production line model."

It severed the AI's connections with his body, locking him away in his own memory, stealing everything that was his.

And Kitt screamed.

"I'm sorry, KITT, but there is no choice."

KARR smiled at him.

Is there?

-o-o-o-


End file.
